A home network system is a system that enables communication between home devices by connecting the home devices such as a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a television, a Personal Computer (PC), a VCR, a stereo system, a printer, a door lock, a washing machine and the like through a wired or wireless network. In order to connect the home devices to the network, various communication schemes such as a Power Line Communication (PLC), Ethernet, Bluetooth, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394 are used.
In the home network system, a smart home function controls the home devices according to a request from a user to provide the user with a remote control, monitoring, energy related information, and an automatic notification function for the home devices.
However, in general, among the home devices, only models of a particular device level for each home appliance are equipped with the smart home function, and accordingly, home devices of the remaining models except for the particular device level cannot support the smart home function.
Further, a protocol structure between a device and a module supporting the smart home function uses a fixed packet and uses a separate Acknowledgement (Ack) signal for identifying downlink. Accordingly, even when the user controls a simple function of the device, a response time delay due to the use of unnecessary fields is generated and also unnecessary memory waste and power loss are generated.